Arachnophobic? Don’t watch this video.
German scientist Ingo Rechenberg discovered a new, acrobatic species of huntsman spider in the Erg Chebbi region of Morocco, according to a recent study authored by biologist and spider expert Peter Jäger. When threatened, the little arachnid (Cebrennus rechenbergi) actually flips itself out of harm’s way, earning itself the name “the flic-flac spider”. Though not strictly a biologist himself, Rechenberg works in the related field of bionics—the application of biological methods and systems to the study and design of engineering. As such, he’s developed a robot that mimics the flic-flac spider’s odd locomotion.
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Write to Bijan Stephen at bijan.stephen@gmail.com